Archive for May 2008

While I was at the Sega Rally 3 launch last week, I got to see a little bit of what goes on at Sega Amusements Europe. It is a fun place! The developers from the former Sega Racing Studio turned up for a look at the finished product, but some members were also addicted to another machine – the UFO Catcher in the corner! They got quite good at it and managed to win quite a few times, which was impressive given the bulky nature of the prizes in the machine. As well as playing Sega Rally 3 against them, I took on the testing team (who are scarily good at the game). One particular tester known as “The Stig” also got to witness me making a real hash of things on the PS3 version of Sega Rally, and asked me the question of the day – “do you read UK:Resistance?”, which is one of those questions you’re always afraid to face in public.

Speaking of UK:R, one of my missions for the day was to locate the Sonic statue that Zorg made infamous. As you can see, the quest was successful! The building also contains many other items of interest for those of us raised on the Master System and Mega Drive. The warehouse is full of spares for games going right back to the early 1990s – I noticed things for the 1992 games Virtua Racing and Stadium Cross, but the collection extends through to the present day fairly comprehensively. I must admit to geeking out a bit when I saw the Spikeout marquee pictured below, and Scud Race is still a gem (which still isn’t available on home consoles). Meanwhile, the workshop contains various fun things, including the prototype “Super Challenge” cabinet from the Sega Rally 3 location tests and a disassembled 1995 Sega Rally cabinet, as well as various modern machines such as 2 Spicy and Virtua Tennis 3.

Have a peek at some pictures I gathered on my trip:

My cover is blown; I am a UK:R reader!

Since taking this picture, I have a craving for the game

This game would be in my dream arcade

Am I the only one who preferred it when arcade guns only came in primary colours?

Thanks to a tip we have found out that Sega is currently testing another new racing game, this time in the US that is based on Hummer’s. From what we know the game is called Hummer Extreme and at this point in time, we know nothing else about the game other than it was on test at Gameworks in Chicago this last week (I am trying to find out if the game is still there) and that the game was fun.

So at the moment this means that this year alone we will see or have seen a total of at least nine new racing games and who knows what else we’ll see as the year progresses. I am happy to see so many new games coming to arcades, this alone proves that the industry is doing well but as you know I would like to see some more original content that breaks away from the norm. I know that it’s hard to complain if the current games are fun and bring their own interesting innovations to the table but I still feel the need to push for some different kinds of games. I was expecting to see some more motion-controlled games by now as the rumor was that thanks to the Wii we would be seeing more of those kind of games but so far I have only seen a couple this year.

Anyways Sega Japan has also announced yet another update for RaceTV (which I have found out that it was part of the game already and is a simple time release, thanks RJAY), which will include new tracks, characters and a new car. This makes the 2nd update that I know of for the game, the first adding a password feature. We’ll have to see if the new low price and this update will help improve RaceTV sales as well as earnings.

We also have a look at a Need For Speed Carbon converted cabinet. It looks like GVR wasn’t going to stand by and watch Raw Thrills pass by with the Tokyo Drift kits as this looks to also allow an operator to do a complete makeover on any NFS cab they happen to have on hand. This image via BHMVending (click on the thumbnail to enlarge).

I am a little late on this as i wanted to research it a little if I could find the time but forum member Molloy pointed out that the new shmup DoDonPachi Dai Fukkatsu was released in Japan this week and for those who love their shmups loaded with bullet hell patterns and lots and lots of firepower, this is a game for you. Interestingly enough it reminds me a little bit of Mars Matrix which I got a chance to play today although there are some obvious differences between the two. Embedded below is a video of the game in action, reports suggest that this one is for casual players of the series and you receive more bombs than in previous installments of the game but from the video it looks like there is enough going on to keep shmup fans of any kind happy.

The city inspector came by today and unfortunately we didn’t pass – we have to fix a couple of minor things and get it rescheduled. I hope that it won’t take long to get it done again though as I hope to be open by the beginning of next week but that can’t happen until I get my license. I needed some words on the door about the door being unlocked during business hours, a new fire extinguisher and some extra outlets added (which was supposed to happen today but didn’t get done).

From this video you can see the addition of a few new games that arrived today and hopefully there will be more tomorrow. Today’s arrivals included Mars Matrix, Mighty Pang (I might convert this to something else), a disgusting Golden Tee 99, SVC Chaos, Gauntlet Dark Legacy, two Tokyo Drift kits (for some reason my Crusin’ USA cabs were not delivered) and a brand new Indiana Jones pinball. It was great to sit down and play this, I did at ASI but that was a different place where I couldn’t spend a lot of time on it.

Here is the video – for some reason it says there is an issue with it but it should be showing up shortly so check back in case it’s not working ( I would wait to post until it’s ready but it’s lights out for me)

Raw Thrills/Play Mechnix’s Beat The Pro Tour continues to bring the latest version of Big Buck Hunter Pro Online to players across the US and this June between the 2nd and the 19th the tournament will be coming to several states in the Midwest. For those that come to the locations where the event is taking place they will have an opportunity to win some great prizes. Locations and more details in the press release after the break.

The headline basically says it all – in Long Island New York at an FEC called Fun Zone Amusements(link to a video of the arcade on youtube) a father and daughter were trapped in a flight simulator game for about 20 minutes when the ride failed. They were apparently stuck in either an upside-down or reclining position before being rescued by the local fire department. The name of the simulator wasn’t mentioned and fortunately no one was hurt.

This is the disadvantage of large simulators of course – if they decide to stop failing during operation it can lead to inconvenience or something worse depending on the ride, which goes on to stress maintanence.

Here in Niagara Falls, NY there is a mall called The Summit and in addition to the Krow’s Nest with the bowling machines there is another arcade called Phoenix arcade. They have 2 storefronts in the mall. They have a wide variety of games between both their storefronts including the original Outrun simulator, classic games, some modern games, prize cranes, foosball, air hockey and much more. Their newly opened arcade is decorated very nicely on the outside. Here is a video of the newly opened arcade.

Overall the location is very clean, the games are priced cheaply at 25 and 50 cents per play, however this location suffers from many of the problems that classic arcades suffer from such as dead games and lots of monitor problems on the games. The phoenix arcade has quite a few games though and keeping up with them must not be that easy.

A video of their other storefront in the mall will follow in a short while.